Evaluation of Cytotoxic and Anthelmintic Activity of Plant Roots of Clerodendrum viscosum (Family: Verbenaceae)

In the present study, in-vitro cytotoxic and anthelmintic activity of root extract of C. viscosum was evaluated. The Brine shrimp lethality bioassay method was used to determine the cytotoxic activity and vincristine sulphate was used as positive control. The plant extracts were also evaluated for invitro anthelmintic activity against Bangladeshi earthworms Pheretima posthuma and the time taken for worm paralysis and death was determined. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the level of significance. The methanolic crude extract of plant root exhibited mild to moderate cytotoxicity with LC50 value of 10.235±1.061 g/ml (95% CI: 7.60-12.87) as compared with vincristine sulphate with LC50 value of 0.841±0.025 g/ml (95% CI: 0.78-0.90) and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). In the screening of anthelmintic activity, methanolic crude extract as well as aqueous fraction (water) of plant root revealed statistically significant anthelmintic activity on adult Bangladeshi earth worm Pheretima posthuma in comparison to the reference drug (p<0.05). The paralyzed time of methanolic crude extract, aqueous fraction and standard Albendazole were 13.23±0.49, 78.24±0.17 and 17.67±0.54 minutes at a concentration of 50 mg/ml. The death times of previous three samples were 45.10±1.79, 177.37±0.62 and 48±0.47 minutes respectively at the same concentration. In conclusion, our study suggests that the crude extracts of C. viscosum roots possess some action of cytotoxic and anthelmintic activities.